FFmpeg is a free program that produces libraries and programs to handle multimedia information. You can record, convert, and play digital audio and video in various formats. FFmpeg can be used to convert many multimedia formats. It is a command line tool that is made up of a collection of freeware / open source libraries. The name of the project comes from the MPEG video standards group, along with "FF" for "fast forward".
Steps
Step 1. In order to use FFmpeg you must have it installed on your system
For this article we will cover installation methods on Windows and Debian-based Linux systems (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.).
Step 2. To know how to install FFmpeg on Windows, see the following article:
How to install FFmpeg on Windows
Step 3. To find out how to install FFmpeg on Linux, see your appropriate Linux distribution method for installing FFmpeg
- The installation below contains instructions for installing FFmpege on Debian-based Linux systems (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.).
- Open the terminal and Type / Copy / Paste the following commands:
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sudo apt-get install synaptic
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sudo apt-get update
This command updates the package repositories on your system
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ffmpeg -version
This command checks if you have FFmpeg installed on your system
- If FFmpeg is not installed on your system you can install it with the command below:
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sudo -s apt-get install ffmpeg
This command installs FFmpeg on your system
Step 4. Once FFmpeg is successfully installed on your operating system, you can do a simple conversion from a *.wav file to a *.mp3 file, following the instructions below
Make sure you have the *.wav file and put that file in a new directory called FFmpeg_Example. Then follow the instructions below:
Step 5. Instructions to convert a *.wav file to a *.mp3 file using FFmpeg
Step 6. Instructions for Windows operating system
- Open the Command Prompt line and enter the commands below:
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cd Desktop
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mkdir FFmpeg_Example
- Copy the sample.wav file to your FFmpeg_Example directory
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cd FFmpeg_Example
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ffmpeg -i sample.wav sample.mp3
Step 7. Instructions for Linux operating systems
- Open a terminal line and enter the commands below:
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cd Desktop
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mkdir FFmpeg_Example
- Copy the sample.wav file to your FFmpeg_Example directory
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cd FFmpeg_Example
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ffmpeg -i sample.wav sample.mp3
Step 8. FFmpeg should convert your file from.wav extension to.mp3 extension
Step 9. This is just one example of how to convert between different file formats using FFmpeg, however there are many more examples of what you can do with FFmpeg
- How to record your desktop with FFmpeg on Ubuntu Linux
- How to convert Flash video file (.flv) to MP4 com FFMpeg